GNOME Shell

[Merk42]

What is GNOME Shell?
GNOME Shell, for those of you that do not know, is a user interface change to GNOME. With it, brings Mutter a combination of Metacity and Clutter, managing the windows. Say goodbye to compiz as it won't be compatible.

GNOME Shell will be released in September of 2010 so it won't be default until at least 10.10, most likely later.

What does it look like?
Here is GNOME Shell.

The date and username provide a calendar and menu respectively


Currently some applications are open but minimized. Where are they?
This is the overlay, where you run and manage "Activities"


More applications can be run either by searching for the name in "find", or clicking the bar that says applications


You can easily add or subtract workspaces with the + and - buttons. By default, layed out in wall form, the scrollbar, or smaller boxes letting you switch among them


You can also view all workspaces at once in a grid layout


Oh look, an instant message! Clicking on the icon in the lower right will bring up the window.


Just hover over the message to expand it to view it all.



How do I Learn More?

• Read up on the design document. It gives an idea of where they'd like to go and why.
• If that's too much of a read, look at this brief synopsis on GNOME Shell.
• Look at the GNOME Shell cheat sheet for features.

How do I Try it?

Running Jaunty, Karmic and Lucid there are three ways to try GNOME Shell

• Install the gnome-shell package (easy but out of date)
• Use the Ricotz PPA (slightly harder, but more up to date)
• Build from source (more difficult, but up to date when something is added, provided you rerun jhbuild build)

Don't try it in a Virtual Machine


Building from source is a bit more complicated than the GNOME instructions say. So fire up a terminal

1. sudo apt-get install curl libgstreamer0.10-dev libcroco3-dev xserver-xephyr xulrunner-dev python-dev mesa-common-dev libreadline5-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libwnck-dev librsvg2-dev libgnome-desktop-dev libgnome-menu-dev libffi-dev libgtk2.0-dev libgconf2-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev gtk-doc-tools gnome-common git-core flex bison automake build-essential mesa-utils
2. curl -O http://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-sh...build-setup.sh
3. /bin/bash gnome-shell-build-setup.sh
4. Get jhbuild (not a command line entry)
   
   • For Lucid via repository, package name "jhbuild". You will also need to install "gir-repository-dev"
   • From Jaunty
   • From Debian
   
   
5. jhbuild build

To run

1. cd ~/gnome-shell/source/gnome-shell/src
2. ./gnome-shell --replace

To quit GNOME Shell and return to the panels

1. Go to the terminal
2. hit CTRL-C

To update (check the commit log for anything new)

• jhbuild build (rebuilds updated files)
• jhbuild build -f -a -c (builds all gnome shell files)

If you want to make it your default, put "gnome-shell --replace" in your Startup Items

Be aware that there is currently a bug with the cursor being hidden in panel or overlay---the workaround is ALT & F2 to bring up a run dialog & type in "restart"--the shell will restart & grab your cursor.

Love it? Hate it? Have a suggestion? Make your voice heard in the GNOME Shell mailing list

Personal thoughts
I currently have the following issues:

• Unable to see what applications I'm currently running at a glance.
• Text for running/favorite applications is often truncated
• Blue dots illustrating number of open windows is often obscured
  (dots and any way of illustrating number of open windows has since been removed all together)
• Needless reinvention of notifications
• No single click shortcuts available in panel (must go to overlay)
• No ability to view/empty trash (the paradigm shift is to remove trash, but much like a lot of things in GNOME Shell they haven't thought of what to replace it with)

I also wonder if Ubuntu plans on adding its own custom bits to GNOME Shell

[collinp]

Gnome Shell is a fairly radical change for the GNOME project, and it is still in pretty heavy development. It's also a lot more resource intensive for old systems like mine because it *requires* compositing.

I wrote a blog post with my opinion on GNOME shell a while back: here. (It also has a few screenshots for those of you that don't know what it looks like)

[lovinglinux]

Say goodbye to compiz as it won't be compatible.

I have already said goodbye GNOME because of that and because I don't like the design and the workflow of GNOME Shell. Anyway, I'm running KDE since Karmic Beta and I'm loving it.

[olskar]

I don't like the design and the workflow of GNOME Shell.

Design and workflow are words that should not be used in the same sentence as GNOME Shell. Especially not workflow. Well, there are no workflow really? Uh, it's terrible. *shrugs*

[qamelian]

You nay-sayers can gripe if you like, but I still think Gnome-shell is a huge step forward in usability over the existing Gnome UI. I've been using Gnome-shell as my default UI for a couple of months now, and I find it much nicer to work with than any of the existing major desktops on *nix. I can't wait to see where they take the final product.

[optimisme]

still think Gnome-shell is a huge step forward in usability over the existing Gnome UI

Why ? Because you need to use your keyboard or because the screen is flying in and out all the time ? Maybe is because multiple desktops concept is the 90% of the idea, when people barely uses 2 desktops.

Gnome-shell is far from a good a idea (the way it is now), and I think instead of lose time/resources on it people would appreciate more another initiatives like QTGnome.

[qamelian]

Why ? Because you need to use your keyboard or because the screen is flying in and out all the time ? Maybe is because multiple desktops concept is the 90% of the idea, when people barely uses 2 desktops.

Gnome-shell is far from a good a idea (the way it is now), and I think instead of lose time/resources on it people would appreciate more another initiatives like QTGnome.

Thanks for taking the time to make completely wrong assumptions about my preference. I've already covered some of my reasons in another thread and just because you don't think it's a good idea doesn't make it so. Read the mailing list referenced by Merk42 in his original post and you'll find plenty of other folks who have also found benefits to using Gnome-shell. If you can't accept that some people are capable of making good, productive use of this tool, that is not my problem.

[Starks]

Gnome-Shell, in its current form, is a gigantic cluster****.

It shouldn't take me 5 extra seconds to find the app I want to start.

[oomingmak]

Words cannot express my hatred for Gnome Shell ..... well, they can actually, but I'd get banned within seconds.

[qamelian]

Gnome-Shell, in its current form, is a gigantic cluster****.

It shouldn't take me 5 extra seconds to find the app I want to start.

Why is it taking you 5 extra seconds? I've been finding it much faster than the menus in Gnome 2.X. Tap the Super key and type a couple characters and tap the Enter key. No messy menu navigation unless you really want it. Personally, I find Gnome-shell much more productive. It took me a couple weeks to get used to it and modify a couple of work habits to suit the change in environment, but now I can't imagine going back to the more traditional Gnome interface at all.